Diary of Salazar Jan
Salazar Jan Gallowglass Memories of a psyker * On the Path of Holiness indeed Freed from the darkness of prison and silence of mind Released from prison at last they brought me to Sagisville, Interrogator of Inquisitor Gallowglass. The good fellow took off my shackles and introduced me to my new cabal of Inquisitorial Akolytes. The first one was Father Kilian, our leader to be. A decent priest with a good heart. For a cleric he seemed reasonable fond of me, I suppose. Next came a Tallarn tough guy Sirhan al Zufar, suave death dealing woman Tanisha Bones, eerie looking Sister Mary and the ominous silent Azrael Umbra. First the good Tallarn warrior declared Father Kilian as group leader. Then we began to consolidate our talents and skills. Last we were enlightened by strong visions of our past. It was then that we realized, we were all children of endless war against heretics. Whereas the priest and the sand warrior were storming a macropole city under heretic rule, Tanisha went on a hunt for some psyker. Myself seemed to have been in a quarrel with "iron dire wolves", creatures from the Warp hunting for flesh. I take it from the vision that I was responsible for some eldritch holocaust then but destroying the creatures nonetheless. As a consequence of this strange visions I deem it appropriate to strenghten my will against whatever else lies ahead of us. * On a world where death accomplishes more than life Exploring Granithor and its grave complexes My dear, this world where they sent us! I must have seen many things in my life that I am not surprised about this world. Granithor is a world where death is revered like a god. Billion of graves surround us here. I cannot help myself but enjoy the insolent irony of it: to hold the dead above the living and to linger in yesterdays accomplishments. But still, it is quiet here and to my mind, so long accommodated to silence, it feels quite homely and relaxing. My good father Kilian and his soldier friend Sirhan, both being born to desert and bonded to Tallarn sand, immediately begin to look for suspicious signs of cult activity. Alas, one has to complement their paranoid attitude as we truly find the sign of IXI (a hand with two crossed middle fingers) on most of the broken tombs here. This disturbance of the dead seems to trouble the local imperials very much. They slip a detail which catches my very interest: the belly of this cemetery world seems to consist of huge catacombs and they seem to be rigged to lots of tombs throughout Granithor, or so rumors will have it. Oh my, what could such a belly have in store for the necrophilic minded or otherwise strangely indulged? Surely it would not be a bad idea to go looking for such tunnels and hidden places? It also seems that there are brotherhoods at work in the dead of night. Our hound Azrael Umbra surprisingly makes the acquaintance with one of their kind. Right before he can get into a fight this stranger makes a wise decision and ignores our warrior, not before confusing him for another cultist and betraying us unwittingly the hand sign of IXI. This planet, its brooding presence aside, still has in a lot in store for lucky us, it seems. I like the thought of that. Ahh and talking about that, my thought of the day is "An unguided mind will walk in dark places here on Granithor". Let that be enough for the moment. * To the bowels of Granitor at last Looking under the skirt of Granithor and exploring its sickness Atellus is like a huge skyscraper into the underworld. Many of its tombs have lots of floors into the earth and are chaotically built on older tombs. Imagine a maze of mad tunnels, roads and halls ending and etching in illogical ways throughout Granithor and Atellus beeing deeper nerved by this architecture than anywhere else. This is Atellus, city of the dead buried under still more dead creatures and buildings. One could really feel excited about sightseeing or so our cabal decided, and we went well underground. But first things first. Lots of disturbed graveyards with IXI signs meant lots of work ahead of us and lots of graves to dig up. We went to the nearest site and began investigation on the tomb of merchant clan of House Merica. The one-story building had been meticulously repaired. No signs of invasion but the carefully chiselled sign IXI right next to the huge doors to the tomb. The broken had been changed - in fact as we later found out, all of the repaired locks had been replaced by the same lock type, it was nothing tangible but we sensed a pattern of some kind. The house of the dead opened its maw While we Psykers investigated Warp resonance – it was nothing unusual to be felt – Tanisha made use of her huge Durasteel hairpins and opened the lock with such ease that it seemed like mere child’s play. At last, the house of Merica opened its polished maw to our fold. Its interior humbled me and my colleagues. We stared at an ages old sarcophagus surrounded by four hooded maintenance servitors. One of these blank souls stood up to us but it seemed no danger at all. It merely inquired our wishes and left my friends quivering with drawn weapons and on the very edge of violence. According to protocol of the Machine God our techpriest Tonus examined the mind of the humble creature and concurred that it had no memory else than its daily chores stored. We let go of the humble man-machine and went on despoiling the tomb. A staircase brought as further down into the bowels of house Merica until in another tomb we found a secret entrance to the sewers. Sneaking into a moldy dungeon I instantly became inspired by the familiar whisper of madness. Like a hound I followed this trail to a crossing and persuaded my fellow travellers to take the left turn. Oh so close was the warp I could nearly feel it caressing my skin. Bloody also felt it as her eyes began to gleam in an eerie green light in correspondence to the call of power beyond us. Alas, this was why we were born, this was our purpose. I began to quiver in anticipation but the frustration quickly took hold of me when the keening of the warp become silent as quickly as it had come. Behold the signs of the dark gods and its servants Frustration certainly didn’t last long when we soon found signs of combat and our Imperial experts identified a war shrine dedicated to the God Emperor, near dead but everpresent and protecting for his fold. But his reach seemed to have diminished at bit when – following a chance patrol of human guards – we stumbled upon unholy ammo with the insignia of the Great Enemy and soon after two mutant-beasts. It could be called a near-death experience for the deadly Tanisha as her pretty bones were about to be blasted to smithereens in crossfire. Here inhuman reflexes saved her day and she dove to the ground right when the patrol guards and our troup began to unleash hell on the mutant scum. It was, in a manner of speaking, hell on earth for these poor creatures and it was over all to soon. After the smoke settled and some of ours puked at the sight of the sweet reeking monsters, Father Kerensky talked us out of trouble and right into the helping hands of the patrolling units. Also in a manner of speaking I have to admit that our dear Father is a hell of an orator. One can only applaud to his auditory skills. Well, off we went to a headquarter of sorts. There we had a little chit-chat with the mercernaries patrolling the dungeons. What they told us, well, it seemed a bit awkward to our ears. For at least two years they were battling remnants of the Archenemy in the dungeons of this planet and swore us to secrecy. We, being humble servants of House Merica indeed, swore with crossed fingers behind our backs and further swore ourselves to investigate also the other graves all the while holding our eyes open for this strange brotherhood of soldiers. * Bits and pieces No place for a lady In the hotel I was playing for time. While I distracted the manager with a fit of eccentricity, Tanisha went looking for the room of the lady who visited the grave. Let’s face it, the lady was as interesting as a pair of old socks. After having stalled enough time with fits of noblesse oblige and advanced lunacy, Zirhan gave me the much appreciated sign (“the package has arrived”) and we let go of the hotel manager. Outside of the hotel a cold but clean rain poured down from the sky. I got wet through and through but I it was good feeling. Nothing like the acid rains on hive worlds one was used to. Yes, I cherished the sweet taste of nature and then stepped into the car with my two friends to go looking for the others. Meanwhile Azrael, Tonus and Mary visited the next grave. It seemed inconspicuous. They looked for the hidden entry and went into hiding when a group of people appeared and walked straight into the much sought tomb entrance. We arrived in the safe distance of some gravestones away where Azrael made contact with us. He told us about the group of cultists vanishing from a car into the tomb. We became very cautious, readied our weapons and tried to follow the car trail. On our way a dark shape crossed our path which happened to be our revered techpriest. Breaking circles, breaking bones Following the other car with headlights turned off, we were suddenly shot on and responded in kind. After a short outburst of violence we took control of the situation and killed the sniper. While I disarmed him with a telekinetic grab for his rifle, the others checked the bus of the cultist. Zirhan ordered me to telekinetically put the body and its belongings into the bus and then dropped a phosphorous grenade into it. It pains me a bit but I have to admit I had to show off a bit with my abilities. Oh my, everyone had his moments now and then. Driving to the next tomb we finally met with Bloody Mary who told us about suspicious activities in her observed grave. And I thought that a cemetery world promised premature death by latent boredom. In effect being buried on Granidor after death meant definitely having more company and fun than being buried alive in, let’s say, the Darkwater colony, for instance. Some cultists were even supposed to be down there at the moment, so Zirhan made up a plan to check out the grave in full military combat fancy. Tanisha, Bloody and me went down into the hole. It was a labyrinthine world, built over and over again until swallowed by the earth or other buildings, and after some sneaking we found the body of one of the soldiers we met some time ago patrolling other dungeons. He was killed by two laser shots and lots of stab wounds. Also his eyes had been gorged out. Bloody Mary made a fuzz about some holy good-bye-rituals for the dead, while Tanisha and me called the other boys down to secure the dead body. Then we went on. Suddenly we walked straight into a full blown fire fight. Imperial soldiers tried to overwhelm the cultists. Meanwhile the cultists tried to summon a servant of Nurgle into an ancient power armour. We joined the fight. While the others began shooting practise, I decided to use my personal talents and thanks to my growing powers I sent a grenade accelerating into the summoning circle while pulling the armour quickly towards us. After literally scattering the circle with the grenade Tanisha dashed forward and sliced the head off from the armour. Her power sword was something to behold of. Right behind her Zirhan slam-dunked a krak grenade into the armor and the old thing detonated into many smouldering parts. The ritual was over. The party mood left the cultists. All we had to do, was to mop up the remaining lot and selectively put two remaining warlocks out of their misery. After our little contribution to society by blasting and hacking heretics to bits and pieces we collected all damning proof and made our silent departure from the fighting scene. Now this was it. We pondered if we had been somehow successful in our activities. It all came down to this: we came, we saw, we intervened. And we knew next to nothing. It sounded so very much like Arbites handywork. Well I had to admit it, I was embarrassed. There had to be more to it. This was an insult to collective intelligence. A cultist we captured and interrogated was of no help either. Indeed it helped to relieve some tension when I was allowed to let go of my anger and show him the teeny-weeny monster in me. But it did not help at all. It was interesting to know that he, one Crish Ravion, came from some other world which he left when contacted. He entered Granidor and he joined the summoning of the Nurgle herold. But more was not to come. Although Tanisha did her best to squeeze out every drop of information out of this scumbag, this small source of knowledge soon ran dry. At last Zirhan came up with Arbites spying lesson 101. We were to release this hostage at next possibility and to shadow its every move. What the heck, I told myself, we could not do worse by killing him than by possibly killing lots like him. I somehow liked the sound of it. *'On the Path of Holiness again' "Log, this is Salazar Jan, voice protocoll on board of the "Path of Holiness", clearance for record requested , log date and so on and so on - log out oh man I hate this administrative stuff , I mean it´s in the mind, isn´t it ? so why bothering and REPORTING every fething scrap to *** ********, right-o, anyway, I proceed with this report, log on again : give you that, you were fracking right with your assumption, they´re special. scared the **** out of me once when they started bitching and confronting the commander with questions such as Oh, you´re soo naughty, you didn´t give us all the information we needed, we forgive you but let´s talk about it - -I mean hey, they call ME crazy and then this nonsense. i mean, some of them are guard. think of that, next time when getting the order to attack you tell the sarge ok, now we know how you would do it but we have to discuss it in the subcommittees and we´ll let you know now and then. I´m newbie in this company but I think there is a - let´s put it this way- MANAGEMENT problem in the lower and lowest part of the executive branch of the ordo; takes me to the next thing: FIRE DISCIPLINE, and hey log please put quotation marks on the substantive DISCIPLINE; when showing them the big traitor marine they brought some artillery with them, you know plasma weapons, hard rounds and so on, just to make sure - i mean hello-hello eyes to brain tis´a message we´re on a vessel - in the void ! f*** it. the emperor protects! over and out." *'Holiness, Path of , After Action Report' "Log, request security clearance and status confirmation for Salazar Jan. Please fill in time and current location - ahmm that´s the warp- for the AAR and then go ahead. give me zerozerotwo copy´s , both encrypted and second one for personal use that is first one for the official files. Report coming in now: Interrogator gave me a staff and introduced me to a f***ing traitor marine monster thing from the Sons. Seemed that we know each other ´cause he could see thru me eyes and I could command him - log out. That goes only to the private files: wasn´t the only one but that´s another story...log on again: Then they gazed at me and Kerensky- who was invited to the party too - nearly wettend his whateverundiesamonkwears. I should mention that he nearly shot me during the comm-process with the Thousand Sons sergeant for some reason or another but I´m alive and who gives a s*** on it now? Well that was that. F***, f***, f***, I hate tis clerk business with the AAR - ahhm log delete the last sentence or- next thought, brain activity is high today- countermanding the last order. Everyone should know the report is made of sweat and tears. Well to go on with the sitrep: got the order to bring on the traitor marine´s other brethren and plans were made. A lot of plans.Took time A lot of frecking time. The SANDMEN are the opposite of a quick reaction team - so the name´s suiting well. I was bypassed in the progress of plan making because they feared me. So I went on holidays for a day or two while they were making plans. Then we made planetfall, the meticulously planned plan went up with a big bang - as all military plans do after the first contact - and the group splitted up. Some killed some aliens, some guarded me with weapons drawn and ready, some did that also. I walked along with them. Interrogator was out for chitchat with the locals but in the long end she didn´t make the homerunn and we moved on guarding me and ocassionally shooting at popping up targets. We entered a house, the weirdos I came with having some weird experiences with weird phenomenoms and we moved along in the cellar. Lot´s of doors, was at that time a little tired of being guarded all the time and therefore nearly opened a wrong door, nearly got shot by Kerensky who nearly or definitely (who knows but the God Emperor, may HE enlighten our souls and guide us thru the dark paths we will have to walk) wettended his undies again.The others ran around, the Tech managed to take over controll of some anti -aircraft guns with the help of Fishbone; they also managed to knock Fishbone down who stood near the guns when they opened up. Seems to me they´re neither quick thinkers nor fast planers. Another uncomfy situation developed during the fight when I let cut loose the frakking traitor marine who destroyed the weapon servitors while Staff Sergeant Sirhan was still doing some **** - planning and calculating, reconsidering the circumstances and .......UAHH, sorry log, I fell asleep. Category:Gallowglass